Concepts of Effectiveness and Inferred worth and their Application in Social Service Resource Allocation Models Available to Purchase

This paper considers the problem of including “objectives” in a resouce allocation planning model for personal social services. Essentially, are models to be built containing valued “goals” and/or “objectives” in a planning model for senior management in personal social services; that is, models which contain explicitly defined “goals” and/or “obectives”? Alternatively, are valued “goals” and/or “objectives” to be absent from our models but inferred from dialogues with the decision makers? And if the latter form is adopted what are the implications for the measurement of service effectiveness?